QUICK BITE/Hoboken; Where Flowers Are Just Icing on the Cake

Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop, just two blocks from the Hoboken PATH station, looks, at first glance, like an ordinary Italian neighborhood bakery. Cashiers greet customers by name from behind a 25-foot long glass case filled with classic pastries, cookies and small cakes.

But in the rear of this pleasant retail business lies nearly 7,000 square feet of production space, all for assembling treats that are the stuff of fantasy -- and glossy magazines.

It is there that Bartolo Valastro Jr., known as Buddy, and his staff of about 10 go through a ton of sugar each week to create more than 400 wedding, shower, birthday and other special occasion cakes.

They make hundreds of gum paste petals by hand and apply layer upon layer of color with pencil-fine paintbrushes, until the flowers are indiscernible from the real thing.

Mr. Valastro, 27, has been in the bakery business for more than half his life. By age 14, he was decorating cakes at Carlo's, then owned by his father, Buddy Sr. Mr. Valastro has helped his family run the business since his father's death in 1994. Now magazines like Modern Bride feature his work.

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The bakery specializes in highly personal, individualized cakes. Recently Carlo's baked a cake with a ring inside and wrote the marriage proposal in icing across the top. (She said yes.) For a twin baby shower, Mr. Valastro designed a cake with edible rubber duckies and soap bubbles. For his own wedding, he designed and made a 500-pound, 10-tier cake he estimates would cost about $10,000.

Most brides can expect to spend far less -- usually $500 to $1,500. Other unusual and highly personalized occasion cakes cost $20 to $150 and may include an icing version of a photo or elaborate butter cream and gum paste creations. Marge Perry